CHAPTER 14
.
.
.
“You have to make it up to her,” William commented suddenly,
Liam raised his head to look at him at that comment.
Both men were in the brand new office sixty, the top floor of the building and representing the executive head of the company.
The lawyer had come to work on some reports and agree on some strategies, since Liam had appointed him Vice President of Legal so that they could work side by side, taking him out of that position of internal advisor that limited him and he could do it from his new position without the need to consult with any Board.
“Who are you referring to?” he asked, although he knew perfectly well who he was referring to.
“You know I'm talking about your secretary...and a raise would look very nice,” said William, who held the young secretary in high esteem. “Of course, a bonus for your VP of Legal who selected her for you wouldn't look bad either”
“I'll give her a bonus,” Liam mentioned, and continued writing. “She won't need a raise. What could a small-town girl need on her own? You'll see she'll pay off her bonus by buying all the food in Manhattan”
Liam didn't mean it in a bad way. He planned to give her a double bonus and a few days off when the office was settled so she could travel to Cheyenne to visit her family. He planned to give her airline tickets as a gift. He thought she missed her relatives.
He wasn't even sure how he got that lousy idea, but he thought about it the night before.
“This FINANCIAL spreadsheet is going to break my neck, shall we go for a drink after work?” asked William.
Liam narrowed his eyes. He would have liked that, but unfortunately he had plans with Anna Foreman, whom he had hardly seen during the whole electoral process.
He didn't want her to go with Michael's story, not when he was just taking office.
And his father was still the other majority shareholder.
“Have fun for me, I still have work to do,” he replied to his loyal friend.
And he wasn't lying, Anna was a job for him.
.
.
.
Emma was exhausted, and she still hadn't finished organizing her new work area, which was twice as big as the previous one.
Tanner had called her a while ago to order some things that were missing from the house. The milk and cereal were out and he wanted to bring some baked goods.
She received her paycheck a few days ago. Between her share of the rent, food, transportation, and credit card payments, she had just enough left over.
The cost of living in New York was really high and she was carrying a lot of debt from her time with that jerk Nicholas.
She put her hands to her head.
What was she thinking when she thought she could start a family with a cheapskate swindler, more interested in money that would never be hers?
Because if she thought she could get anything out of Emma's father, she could die dreaming.
She sighed somewhat wistfully.
Her father, let alone Faith, had never tried to contact her, even to ask about Tanner.
Sometimes she liked to fantasize that they came looking for them.
They were the only family Tanner knew and she regretted that her son lived with that image.
Liam's face jumped out at her. It was a living warning of her mistakes and the consequences of her silence.
She shook her head, she still had to fill out some forms or Liam would scold her.
Last time he had told her she should love doing the forms as much as she loved donuts.
Emma pursed her lips.
She didn't like donuts, even though he thought she was capable of eating whatever was put in front of her. And she didn't blame him, she was notoriously overweight, even more so compared to the gorgeous office girls who walked around the building.
At that moment, the clacking of a pair of heels took away the little concentration he still had.
For a moment she had a flash of déjà vu of Emily, that mean secretary who had made her life miserable for the first few weeks.
The one who appeared was a stunning woman. Although she had only seen her once, her image never faded from Emma's retina.
Anna Foreman had just appeared.
Huge dark glasses with the Chanel logo decorated her made-up face. She wore a cocktail dress that fit her spectacular figure like a glove.
She didn't even say hello or take off her glasses.
“Tell your boss I need to see him”
Emma gawked at the woman, as her fruity and intense perfume flooded the place.
But the newcomer had no patience, least of all for a mere secretary. And she intended to prove it.
“Haven't you heard?”
Emma scrambled for the intercom button to call Liam. She felt doubly clumsy in her movements.
“Mr. Van Dyke, you're wanted by Miss Foreman”
Anna looked at her as if she were a bug.
“The HR standards in this company have dropped considerably,” Michael's daughter commented.
Emma was stiff in her chair and forced herself to stay that way when the door opened and both men came out.
William stood near the foyer, looking at one of the folders, but Emma paid no attention to that.
Instead, she watched intently as Liam kissed the perfumed Anna, in a short contact but one that felt like an opportunity to Emma.
She didn't hear them because she felt the sound was overshadowed by the intense beating of her own heart that wasn't sure how to react to that image.
Then he watched them leave. Him without saying goodbye and taking her by the waist now.
Emma wished the earth would swallow her up as she watched their backs disappear towards the elevator. They were going on a date, that much was clear.
“Miss Darby? The earth calling Miss Darby!”
Lawyer William's voice brought her back from her pitiful bitterness.
“I'm sorry, I just got distracted....”
William didn't sound very convinced.
“It seems more than a distraction, Miss Darby”
“It's nothing,” she ratified, trying to sound confident.
William raised an eyebrow.
His expertise as a legal professional made him knowledgeable about people, so he suspected that hers was a bigger problem than she confessed.
He put down the folder he was reading and tucked his pen in his suit.
“Anyway, Liam authorized me to give you the day off if you want it, since he won't be back in the office today”
“But I can't leave the office....”
“This place will still be here in the morning”
Emma wasn't going to argue anymore, she was going to take that leave and get out of there immediately. It was the healthiest thing to do, since that vision of Liam with the girlfriend affected her too much and she didn't want to make any mistake because she was in a situation of low defenses.
“I'll be back early tomorrow morning”
“And that's what I told you, Miss Darby, your desk won't be leaving here in the morning”
Emma continued to carry her bag, though she couldn't control the shudder that swept through her, the sight of Liam with that woman. She felt doubly stupid since she wasn't supposed to be squeezed by this.
But doing it was very different from thinking about it.
William, who was still writing something in that folder, remained in the same place, but every now and then he glanced at the nervous secretary.
Eventually, Emma finally left, although a few feet away, William called her back to let her know that she had left her cell phone on the desk. Emma had to go back and deal with her distraction.
It really was a good idea to leave the office and reset for tomorrow.
A tomorrow, one that hopefully she wouldn't run into Anna and Liam's photograph again.
.
.
.
She pulled out the metro card, but put it away again.
She didn't like shopping in that area because of the prices, but she wouldn't have time to go to the Chinese supermarket to get what she needed and she was still too upset, more than she would admit.
She was going to make homemade hamburgers for her son and planned to indulge in that luxury using the line she had available on the credit card she paid off a few weeks ago.
She'd rather owe a little there for food than use the money she had saved.
She pushed open the door of one of those Whole Foods that had so many branches in the financial district and began to make a mental list of Tanner's order plus the ingredients for the dinner she planned to prepare.
Ground beef.
Milk.
Cereal.
Sauces.
Fresh bread.
Butter.
And what the hell, she would take a bottle of red wine, of course she would look for the lowest priced one, but that night she thought she deserved it.
She looked at the basket again, making sure to bring a good amount, since besides her and Tanner, there was also Lisa, whom she had no way of excluding from the dinner.
The line wasn't that long, but they were people like her.
People from other areas who worked on Wall Street, who were taking advantage of the free time to buy what they needed.
The place had self-service checkouts, but Emma wasn't used to them and preferred to deal with a flesh-and-blood cashier for her purchases.
When it was her turn, she greeted with that typical Cheyenne friendliness that sometimes clashed with the cold urbanity of New York and began passing out her goods.
He reached a whopping sixty-five dollars.
Emma was startled by the sum, but she wasn't going to waver now so she pulled out her card and swiped it through the contactless.
Transaction not approved.
Insufficient funds.
The cashier looked at her.
“Do you have another card?”
“No way, I'll try again,” Emma replied, surprised, and swiped the card again, but through the bottom slot. She typed in her PIN.
The same message on the screen, making the cashier frown at her.
“No funds, no error”
Emma, embarrassed by the line waiting behind her and worse those whispers of impatient people, was starting to get embarrassed.
But she was sure it was a mistake, and she wasn't about to give up her place in line, since she had to take the subway to Queens.
“Just a minute, please”
She pulled out her cell phone and logged into the bank's app to see the problem with the blessed card.
As she did so, the reasons for the rejection jumped out at her with the statement.
Hundreds of dollars' worth of bills at restaurants, coffee shops and barbershops. Even a weekend hotel stays with spa included.
All from places located in El Colorado.
Only then did it dawn on her that it was Nicholas, and that she had never canceled the extra card she had given him, and that the asshole had no qualms about continuing to use it to live the high life.
“Dickasshole....”
“Miss, could you step aside, we're in a hurry too,” the voice of the man following her in line woke her up.
Emma resigned herself and picked up her bag, humiliated to the marrow, feeling everyone's pitying eyes.
“That won't be necessary, pass this one,” that voice materialized and Emma lifted her head to see if her mind wasn't playing some fantasy on her.
Liam Van Dyke pulled out his black card and swiped it to the contactless. He held a couple of juice bottles in his other hand.
Anyway, the little man who had impatiently rebuked him fell silent in the climate of respect imposed on him by that formidable Armani-clad executive.
The cashier hurried to load Emma's purchases, while she stared stiffly at him.
In the end, he was the one who reached over to take Emma's bag and bring it to her.
“Isn’t this yours?”
Emma took it, but was too embarrassed to speak.
“There was no need for me to pay my bill...I could do that”
The two of them had already left the store.
“Of course you couldn't do it...and don't worry about ever returning it. Your actions are associated with the image of my office, I wasn't going to let such humiliation happen to you”
“Really, thank you very much....”
“That's a lot of food for you alone anyway,” he commented. “Or are you planning to open a grocery store?”
“I don't live alone,” Emma answered without thinking. Although she instantly regretted it because it meant confessing parts that Liam was never supposed to know.
With that information, he fell silent and then pointed to the parked Aston Martin where Emma could see Anna in the passenger seat.
“I must get back, I just came down to get these juices for her,” she still held the bottle in her hand, “We’ll have a lot of work to do in the office tomorrow, so don't come in lazy Dorothy ”
Liam walked away, leaving Emma with the package in her hand.
The woman stood there, her heart pounding.
What the hell had just happened?
.
.
.
Liam was an excellent driver, but as soon as he got into his big car, he practically threw the juice bottle at Anna and went full throttle.
He had gone into that store because Michael's daughter had told him she had to take some medication and he needed to maintain some hypocrisy because of her father.
There he came upon that pitiful scene of Emma being mortified.
She was at the back of the line, but she didn't hesitate to move forward pushing whoever it was and do the right thing.
There were two things he had taken away from that encounter.
First that Emma was not as simple as she thought, but someone with financial problems and furthermore... someone who didn't live alone .
That last bit of information is what one didn't quite process.
Was it possible that she had hooked up with someone from New York or was it someone she brought from her hometown?
Anna was talking to him next to him, but he didn't pay the slightest attention to her, more engrossed in curiosity about his secretary, who every day he realized he knew nothing about her life.
And he did not like that.